Photo Dump

It's been a while!

I'll separate this out in categories... 

Pictures of the yard this summer:

Red Huckleberry.  Noticed this bush last year, but didn't know what it was.  The berries are edible.  The boys love them.  They're a little sour, but the boys love that they can pick and eat them all by themselves.

A chicory I found in last year's veg. garden. It was literally taller than my head!  Not sure how it got there, but I am speculating that it was part of the mesclun salad blend I planted last year and let go to seed.

A magnolia tree I didn't even know we had!  It didn't make flowers last year and the leaves are not the same as the magnolia's I'm used to.

I decided to can this year.  I didn't end up canning anything I grew, but I did put up pickles, tomatoes, green beans, rhubarb, strawberry and blackberry jam, and cherries.  I plan to do some kidney or garbanzo beans at some point, too.  So this leads to the garden and food pictures:

Some of the dill pickles I made.  I also made a couple of jars of sweet refrigerator pickles for the boys.  They loved them!

The tomato I bought at the farmer's market.  It never made anything spectacularly large, but considering the fact that the sun never shone on it and the number of times the wind knocked it over (at least 4), it did pretty well!

One of the smaller blackberry harvests.  They were late this year, but they were prolific as usual!  Cade picked those dandelions for me... =)

 One of the batches of jam, also the cherries, and a pickle!

 

 The first few tomatoes.

 Ski'a kindly provides a lovely scale reference...

 These tomatoes were bought at the farmer's market...

A pork shoulder I made last week for my boys.  I didn't grow it or buy it at a farmer's market, but doesn't it look pretty?

Had a few run-ins with wildlife this summer, too:

 

This is one of three deer that were hanging out under some of our trees for shelter from a rain storm.  I think this is the mother.  The other two are younger (a buck and a doe).  These are the guys who ate my hostas and tomato last year.  We have been watching them since the younger two still had spots!  

This poor little guy got stuck under our kitchen door this week.  Unfortunately, he didn't make it, but I still feel sorry for him.  Weird that we haven't seen a snake the entire time we've lived here and now we've seen two...

Other stuff:

I made this quilt for a friend of mine who is expecting in a few weeks.  I made another one but haven't finished it yet...  The backing is the polka-dot fabric (flannel).  I also put a plush panel on the front for texture.  This one has red and blue rick-rack on it because I love it for a girl, but the boy blanket doesn't.  I'll put some pictures of it up when I'm done with it (hopefully before he's in college...)

And now, finally, the reason you come to this blog, pictures of the kids:  (See how I hide them at the bottom so you have to read about the useless junk first?)

This was from the company picnic.  We let Reid go in the bubble pit this time.

This is the first time Reid has gotten in a bounce house since last year when he got knocked out of one, but this time he loved it!

 

The theme this year was Alice in Wonderland.

I have discovered that I love photographing on a black and white checkered table cloth...

 

 These hats were the centerpieces and underneath were jars full of trinkets.

Batman got a new mode d'transport.

A trip to the zoo the weekend the meerkats opened.  Ice-cream was on the menu...

I thought Cade looked so cute and so grown up in my old Annie shirt that I took a bunch of pictures...

Homemade popsicles on the porch.  What's not to love, indeed!

We had a camp-out in the back yard, and by "we" I mean all of us ate around the campfire and then Brandon braved the outdoors with Cade, while I slept inside with Reid.  Some guys get all the luck...

Had some rain, but they managed to stay dry.

 Ahhh... Sun... Birthday suit... and Peaches so juicy you have to eat them outside...  Sounds like a pretty good summer to me...

Reid drew this all by himself!  I think he did a great job!

 I love this picture...

And now, to celebrate the beginning of Fall.  Some homeschool pictures!

 

 The boys love to sort buttons with chopsticks!  (And do play-doh, and blocks, and lacing, and games, and math cubes, and worksheets and...)

Our book of the week the first week of school was Green Eggs and Ham.  Naturally, I made some for dinner on Friday.  Cade loved it and now he wants it all the time!

Green Eggs and Ham (and bread and squash and potatoes...)

Help!  The ham is looking at me, Sam!

I've been doing an art lesson weekly for the daughters of another homeschooling friend.  The boys love having them over.  Two weeks ago we did vegetable stamps.

 This worked really well.  I might do some of this just for me!

 Another trip to the zoo for a science lesson...

 Cade the meerkat!

 The #1 reason to bring a wagon to the zoo instead of a stroller...

Peek-a-boo!

The boys took swim lessons all summer and Cade is still taking them.  Reid is taking a session off.  They are very excited for Halloween and we've got a lot of stuff planned for the next few months.  Hopefully I'll get myself in gear to put up a few posts instead of another huge one!